by Claire Adams
“Well, here. Take one of these. I take three, but if it’s your first time, you should only take one,” Ana said as she grabbed a pill from the bottle labeled “pain.”
“What is it?”
“It’s methadone. It works really good. You might feel drugged up at first. But it will take away the pain.”
Methadone was one of the strongest pain medications I knew of. Girls that had had their faces fractured and eye sockets broken would take that stuff. It certainly wasn’t for someone who was walking around without any visible broken bones.
“That’s a little strong for me, I’m all right for now,” I said.
“You should probably take it or one of Stephano’s men will make you take two of them,” Ana said as she looked up at the camera in the corner of the room.
I was starting to see what was going on. The girls needed to be drugged up so they would listen to Stephano, but he didn’t pick light drugs. He picked things that would get the girls addicted. That way, even if they wanted to leave, they wouldn’t leave because they needed their drugs so bad. It was sad, and I could only imagine the withdrawals that the girls went through after he sold them off. Those men probably had to deal with some really dangerous medical issues.
PART FOUR
Chapter Nineteen
JACKSON
“Is Victor around?” I asked the security guard at the front of the Port Authority main building.
“Yeah, who’s askin?” the man responded.
“My name is Nate. I need to talk to him about a problem I’m having.”
Luckily, Nate and I looked pretty similar. Nate, Chase, and PJ were finalizing the equipment we needed for surveillance while I got us an appointment with Stephano. I felt in my comfort zone as I made my way from the front gate to the back area where PJ had described I would need to meet with Victor.
After spending the last few years as an investigator, visiting back rooms to get information was something I was very comfortable with. I didn’t expect that Victor would give me any trouble, at all. Guys like him were usually law abiding, for the most part, with families that they were trying to support. Victor probably got a fee for referring women to Stephano and for keeping the high quality women coming through his door.
As I walked toward the security guard who I suspected was Victor, I was slightly surprised by his age. He was well over 60 years old and I hesitated to think that he would be involved in the human trafficking world of women.
Of course, a person of any age could be involved in illegal activity, but I just thought someone of Victor’s age would have too much sympathy for the women and wouldn’t be interested in being involved in something so illegal.
“Hey, I’m Nate. I’m looking for Victor,” I said to make sure I had the right person.
“You need something?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a girl I need to get rid of.”
“I ain’t no hit man. You’ve come to the wrong place,” Victor said as he turned around.
“Nah, man, I got this girl. I had her come over from Russia, but she’s driving me nuts. I need to pass her off. She’s sassy as fuck and I can’t handle her.”
Victor turned around and looked me up and down. My size was always a difficult factor. Because I was tall and had muscles, many people thought I must work for the police. I tried to offset that initial opinion by talking poorly and dressing in ragged clothing, but it was always something people thought of.
“Let me check you for a wire,” Victor said.
Surely, I could have protested. But I wasn’t wearing a wire, so there was no reason he couldn’t check me. I felt bad for the guy. It was obvious he was just doing this to get some money so maybe he’d be able to retire someday. Certainly, he wasn’t a hardened criminal.
At least from the looks of him, Victor looked like a normal guy working a normal job. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who was going this job to meet women. I could see that as being a motivating factor for being involved with Stephano. Maybe I was wrong, Maybe Stephano and Victor had some sort of side thing going on for Victor to hang out with the women. Nothing would surprise me in a business like this.
“No wire, man. I just gotta get rid of the girl.”
“I can set up a meeting with Stephano. Give me a call at this number tomorrow and I’ll see what I can do.”
Tomorrow wasn’t really good for us, but I didn’t want to seem too eager to talk with Stephano. Everything I said was being analyzed by Victor, and if I said one wrong thing, he was likely to kick me out and we wouldn’t have a contact person at all. Our whole plan would be ruined.
I felt the adrenaline running through my veins as I tried to manipulate Victor into doing what I needed him to do. I was really liking this side of the job. I made a mental note to consider some more exciting work when this job was done. Maybe I didn’t need to stay in the shadows so much.
“How about I sell her to you today? She’s a bitch, man, and she doesn’t speak English. I’m about two minutes from just dropping her into the river, you know what I mean.”
Victor looked at me like I was a horrible person, which certainly I was acting like I was. But I needed to get an appointment with Stephano that day and I wasn’t willing to sit around and wait to see if Victor could hurry it up. If he thought I might kill the girl off, I knew he would work faster for me. He wasn’t the type of guy who wanted to see the girls harmed. He seemed like a good guy who was just trying to navigate a very bad business.
“Wait here,” he said as he looked at me with disgust.
I needed this to work. Nothing was as important as getting an appointment with Stephano so we could sell PJ. Once PJ was in his custody, she could ascertain what had to happen so we could get the women out of there. It was the best option we had to safely getting Ana out of the home.
I sat on a small stool and looked around the warehouse as I waited for Victor to return. It was clear to me that I wasn’t a priority to him though as he took well over twenty minutes before he finally made his way back to me.
If I had really been trying to get rid of a girl, I’m sure I wouldn’t have sat around waiting for a guy like Victor. If I was as horrible of a person as I was pretending to be, I would have already dropped the girl off at a shelter or killed her.
The thoughts that ran through my head as I pretended to be that guy were horrible. It disgusted me that people like that actually existed. But I was positive about one thing: we had made the right decision to try and sell PJ to Stephano. I was 100% sure that trying to buy Ana would not have worked out at all. Especially with Victor. He was worried about me and why I had come to him. If I had been asking around about buying women, I was sure he would have thought I was a cop and denied having any information at all.
“You can go to the club called Feather Kitty at noon. He’s going to be having some girls dance there. Your girl will need to be ready to dance. If she’s not pretty, he won’t take her, though.”
“Thanks,” I said as I started to walk away. “She’s pretty. Really beautiful, just a pain in my ass and I can’t deal with that in my life.”
“I need to be paid, man,” Victor said as he stood in front of me.
“Oh, sorry. Is this enough?” I said as I handed him a hundred-dollar bill.
“No, fuck that shit. It’s one thousand dollars for the introduction.”
Suddenly, little old Victor had some balls and was much tougher than I had expected. I doubted that he normally charged people a thousand dollars to get connected with Stephano and I had probably set up the price increase by making my situation seem desperate. Luckily, I had the cash on me because I certainly didn’t want to have to let an old man kick my ass.
I pulled out the cash and handed it to him. I had been around long enough to know a guy like Victor probably had a gun nearby if he was acting all tough like he was. So, there was no need for me to act tough back with him. Instead, I nicely handed him the money and thanked him for his time as I made my way back out of
the port authority warehouse.
Chase, Nate, and PJ had made their way to the parking lot and seemed ready to get things moving. It was happening – everything was going to start moving very fast now and we needed to get ourselves organized.
“You guys have what you need? I’ve got a location and we need to be there at noon,” I said to Chase from the parking lot.
“Yep, we’ve got a van for you to watch the footage from and got an outfit for PJ. Really wish Roxanne had been there to help. Any word from her?” Chase asked.
My stomach sank at the mention of Roxanne. There had been no word from her. She didn’t have a phone because I had smashed it. For the time being, I was going to have to just wait until the evening and hope she returned to the hotel like she had told PJ she would. It made me sick that she might be thinking I had tried to use her.
I needed to stay focused so we could get PJ into the building with Ana and hopefully get both of them out safely. We couldn’t have very many days left before Ana was going to be sold. We had to act fast. As bad as I felt about Roxanne, that didn’t matter at the moment. We had a job to do and I was going to get that job done that night. I didn’t feel comfortable waiting any longer.
I followed Chase, Nate, and PJ down the road and switched from my car into their van. We sat parked for a few minutes while we discussed the specifics of what needed to happen once we got into Stephano’s club.
This was the part of any job that I loved. I liked working with people when I was in the Seals and I liked the teamwork that the four of us had. We communicated well and it was clear that we all had the same idea about getting Ana out safely. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I had a good feeling about what we were about to do.
“They are going to want you to dance. It’s part of his test. Do you feel comfortable with that?” I asked PJ.
“Sure.”
“All right, what’s the video and audio feed look like from the glasses?”
“It’s good. Here, take a look,” Nate said as he handed me a small pair of wire-rimmed glasses.
The glasses were the latest hi-tech lenses and frames. You could not tell there was a camera or microphone in them. From the lay person’s view, the glasses looked like a simple pair of reading glasses.
“If you need to set them down at anytime, just try and point them toward where the action is. Or leave them in a room where Stephano is, that would be useful,” I said to PJ.
“You do remember that I work for the CIA, right? I kind of know what I’m doing here.” She laughed.
I didn’t mean to be condescending to her. It was just that once I was working on a case, I liked to make sure everyone clearly understood what their role was so there wasn’t any confusion once things got rolling. Situations like this one could get pretty hairy pretty fast, and I needed everyone to be on their best game.
“Okay, you guys take my rental car and I’ll drive the van a block or two away from Feather Kitty. Stephano is supposed to have all the girls there to do some dances or something. It will give you two a good chance to her PJ into his hands. Nate, you will need to do all the work. Chase, just go along as a friend to support him and pretend you’re there to keep him safe or something. If Stephano asks you to leave, you leave. We don’t need a power struggle.”
“Yes, sir,” Chase said as he saluted me.
“Commander, we understand,” Nate said as he also saluted me.
“Come on, guys, I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly. This is important. If we fuck up, then Ana is dead and so could one of you. Let’s take it seriously.”
“We got it, Jackson, Let’s just get over there and get things going,” Chase said.
It was nice to be working with two of my brothers. I was very confident in their ability to think on their feet, no matter what the situation brought once they got into the club. I was also very confident in PJ’s skills. She knew what she was doing and she could handle herself in a lot of situations.
I did wish Roxanne had been there to talk with everyone one last time on what it was like to deal with Stephano. She knew him so much better than we all did. Her tips and tricks would have come in handy before we went into the club to meet him.
The adrenaline was pumping as I flipped the surveillance video on to monitor PJ, Chase, and Nate as they made their way into the club. I hated that I wasn’t able to be the lead of this operation, but there was just too much of a possibility that Stephano or one of his men would recognize me. I just hoped they didn’t think Nate was me since we did look so much alike.
“Remember, you don’t speak English, so try not to act like you know what is being said around you,” Nate whispered into PJ’s ear.
I could only imagine how annoyed PJ was with all of us. She was a trained CIA agent, and I knew she had things covered. But I didn’t know how much undercover work she had done before and I certainly didn’t think any of that work would have required her to dance or take off her clothes. This situation was new to all of us and I imagined even PJ was feeling the nerves.
Nate was damn good at his job, too. There was no way he was going to mess this up. I liked to joke with him that he wasn’t any good, but he had been working private security for as long as I had been doing private investigation. Nate knew how to keep people safe.
He had even helped to protect the president when he visited Iraq the previous year. I knew I didn’t have to worry about him, but I still did. Nate couldn’t control the situation around him, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to protect himself if they started shooting.
We had decided together that there couldn’t be any guns in this trade. Nate was pretending to be just a normal guy. A normal guy would be terrified of what was going on, but he wouldn’t bring a gun. PJ and Chase couldn’t risk brining guns either, although we did stash some small tools in the bag that PJ had just in case she got tied up or put into handcuffs; which we hoped would not happen.
“We’re closed,” the doorman said as he looked at the men then directly at PJ.
“I’ve got an appointment at noon,” Nate said.
I couldn’t see what Nate was acting like, but he sounded good. His voice was quiet and reserved like he wasn’t really sure what was going on or how he should handle himself. He certainly didn’t sound very confident and that was exactly what I had hoped for. With his flashy clothes and lack of confidence, Stephano was going to think Nate was just some wannabe who got in way over his head.
The three of them waited outside the door while the man went inside and got someone else. It was a good thing I hadn’t come with them because the second guy was one of the men who had been in our hotel room when I returned the previous day. He had a bruised eye that I had given him. He didn’t look very happy at all to have to come out and deal with Nate, Chase, and PJ.
“What do you need?” the guy asked as he looked at PJ.
“I set up and appointment, I wanted to make a deal for her,” Nate said.
“What’s your name, pretty girl?”
She looked at Nate and then back to the man at the door. It was a tense moment as I watched from the van. I really hoped she wouldn’t answer him at all. If she was pretending not to speak English, she needed to play the part all the way.
“She doesn’t speak English. She goes by Ilsa though.”
“Ilsa, you from Russia?” the guy asked.
PJ nodded her head yes as she looked down at the ground. From what I could tell, things were going really good so far. Nate was acting like he had no idea what was going on, PJ was being shy and demure, things were going great.
I would have preferred that she not respond when the guy asked if she was from Russia, but I figured even if someone didn’t speak very much English they would still know when their country’s name was said. I had to trust PJ and her judgment in the situation. It was her lead we were going to follow; she was going to be the one there with Ana.
“And who are you?” the man asked Chase.
“I’m just a fri
end here to supervise.”
“You need a protector?” the doorman asked Nate and then laughed.
It was pretty funny because Nate was built like I was, with a big frame and lots of muscles. Chase, on the other hand, had plenty of muscle, but he was much thinner than both Nate and I were. It seemed a little odd that Chase would be there to protect Nate.
“He’s my brother,” Chase said. “I just want to make sure nothing bad happens to him.”
“Nothing bad will happen if you don’t start anything,” the man said as he opened the door to the club. “You two go sit there. You come with me,” he said to PJ.
PJ just stood still and didn’t move. She took a moment and looked around the club so I could see the set up and how many men were in there. I saw a couple guys by the front door and a couple sitting in the audience. There was a good-sized camera setup with lighting that I assumed was to take pictures and videos of the girls when they were on the stage. I didn’t see Stephano, though.
“Come with me,” the doorman said as he grabbed PJ by the hand and pulled her into the back room.
It was pretty obvious that the man had dealt with plenty of girls who didn’t speak English before. He didn’t try to talk to her too much and he guided her by pulling on her hand instead of worrying if she understood what he was saying to her.
I had to wonder just how many women had come through those doors before PJ. There had probably been hundreds of women bought and sold at that club. It made me sick to think about all those young girls being purchased by guys and what those men were going to do with them. Even when this job was done, there would always be scum of the earth that didn’t treat women right.
PJ did a great job of looking around so I could get a perspective of everything that was around. She certainly did know what she was doing. Every time I got a hint of worry that she would do something wrong, I remembered that she was highly trained for situations like this. Well, maybe not specifically our situation, but she could think quickly on her feet and I was confident she was going to help us get Ana out of there.